My comparison of various iPad note taking apps

Hey folks, I’ve been trying a lot of note taking apps on my iPad, and this is my rundown. Everyone will have their own preferences, and this is my no means an exhaustive feature comparison; this is cribbed from notes I’ve taken as I’ve gone along.

I hope the formatting comes through in the post…I’ve had to do a few edits now.

Edit: I’ve added some Onenote details now because a few people have asked,

Tl;Dr version – Noteshelf 2 is the winner for me. It has come a long way in 6 months.

It’s important to explain my workflow as to why I’ve picked this, because this will have a bearing on my choice of app.

OneNote.
• Writing feel is ok.
• Not many pen styles.
• Good colour choices.
• Has text tool, lots of fonts. LOTS!
• Has audio.
• Has custom pen palettes.
• Feels a lot like Microsoft Word, really feels like the desktop app with the stylus support bolted on.
• Has various paper styles, not so many.
• Has password protection.
• No handwriting to text features.

I also tried Penultimate, it’s very poor, and Paper53, which a different vibe altogether.

This post was written in Noteshelf 2 and converted to text with minimal cleanup.